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Flushing, I rushedto push my cardigan sleeve down again, covering the mottled bruise, but he shook his head. “Don’t.” His voice was soft now, all the stern dismissal from before draining away.
I stood still, not sure what he wanted from me. I swallowed hard as he came around the counter.
Lifting my arm up between us, he pushed back my sleeve with gentle fingers, so we could both see the purpling bruises on my wrist. In the warm light from the windows, they looked worse than ever.
“What happened?” His voice shook as his fingers trailed over the evidence of Adam’s angry grip. “Minty?”
I shook my head.
“Who then?”
My breath quivered. “Adam.”
His jaw set in an ugly way I’d never seen before. “When?”
“Friday.”
Then, with a gentleness that made my knees weak, Daniel’s fingers traced over the marks, leaving tingles in the wake of his touch. Tension crept into my throat and chest as I huffed out a rough laugh. “It’s nothing. If I hadn’t made him…” I wasn’t going to make my time here today about me. That wasn’t why I’d come. “Never mind. I’m fine.”
Daniel’s eyes flew from my wrist to my face. “It’s not your fault he hurt you.” His voice was scratchy with anger.
Maybe not, but there were plenty of things thatweremy fault in one way or another. “I provoked him.”
Shaking his head, Daniel pulled me into a hug. My camera dug into us, and I didn’t wrap my arms around him in return. Daniel turned his head toward my neck and breathed in my scent, like I’d done to him before. I put my hands against his sides, ready to push him away, but I didn’t. My breath quickened, and my head spun with confusion.
These mixed signals weren’t like him. The Daniel I knew was straightforward and clearheaded. What was I supposed to make of the push-and-pull treatment he was giving me right now? I’d had enough of that kind of thing from Adam over the last year.
I pushed out of his embrace. “I should go,” I said again, adjusting my camera and not meeting his eyes.
“Don’t leave.” I met his gaze, heart lifting to see real contrition there. “I’m sorry. I was being a dick just now,” Daniel whispered, keeping a hand on my shoulder. “Call it a defense mechanism. I’m sorry.” He touched my arm again, frowning at the bruises. “Stay, okay? Stay and talk to me.”
“I didn’t come here to dump my problems on you,” I insisted. “I don’t need an ego boost, or whatever you thought was the reason I wanted to see you. I came here because I want to helpyou.”
Daniel stroked his fingertips over my cheek before sliding around to curl his fingers into my hair. He pressed our foreheads together. Another shiver went through me before he released his hold with a sad smile. “Thank you for wanting to help, Peter. I’m sorry about what I said. Stay longer?”
I hesitated. Iwantedto stay, but I didn’t know what to think of his sudden change of heart. “You really want me to?”
Daniel nodded, guiding me to sit back down in the nook. I slid in and removed the camera from around my neck again, placing it on the table by my half-empty coffee mug. I’d come here to get everything out on the table with him. Was he ready to do that?
Daniel scooted onto the bench next to me this time, instead of reclaiming his prior spot across the table. The place where our thighs touched captured my attention—we weresoclose. Memories of how it’d felt to press against him on the dance floor at The Slide and Tilt-a-Whirl, the scent of his skin, and the way he’d handled me that night in Nashville, taking care of me in bed without a selfish bone in his body, all rushed through me. I’d been an idiot to walk away from him like I had.
“Daniel…” I murmured, as he traced a finger across the back of my injured hand where it was stretched flat on the table. His touch sent more shivers over me, as he slipped his fingers up to skim the bruises marring my wrist again.
Would he think I was just here now because things didn’t work out with Adam?
“I’m sorry. About what happened. The choices I made,” I said. “I really am.”
“You hurt me a lot in Nashville,” he whispered after a few quiet beats. He kept smoothing his fingertips over my tender arm like he could erase the marks there with his affectionate touches. Meeting my gaze, the amber in his brown eyes glowed in the light from the windows. “I’m scared to trust you now. But that’s no excuse for being unkind like I was a few minutes ago. That wasn’t fair to either of us, and I shouldn’t have acted like that.”
My eyes stung. “I’m sorry. I know I keep apologizing for everything, but I’m so sorry about how things went down between us.”
Daniel nodded, pulled his hand away from my wrist, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he spoke with that honest clarity I’d always admired in him, maybe even loved. “Iwantto trust you. It would be so nice to slip back into caring for you that way. It’d make everything I’m dealing with herefeelso much easier.” His lips quirked. “Feeling like that about you? Having you around? It’d give me something to look forward to, at least.”
My pulse jumped. “I’m going toproveyou can trust me again.”
Daniel tweaked one of my curls and then sighed. “You have no idea how much I’d like that.”
